Patient Survey
The GP patient survey was established in England in 2006/07 to support PCT assessment of general practices’ achievements against national standards set out in DES agreements. These agreements linked results from the administered surveys with the rewards made to GP practices. The arrangements for this year’s survey have been different from the past two years as the government decided to replace the previous arrangement with a national postal survey, payment for which is now through the QOF.

SGPC has already been dealing with some serious problems with the Scottish results, of which practices were notified a few weeks ago, in particular because they seemed to be based on small response rates. Practices in England are now receiving their own results, though the national-level data will not be published until late June. The GPC debated this yesterday, and is very concerned that problems similar to those in Scotland may be reported in England and in the other nations. If this does happen, some practices may have their results and therefore some QOF points and a significant amount of funding determined by a very small proportion of their total practice population. It is quite possible that practices will receive a good response rate to the survey as a whole, but low levels of response to one or both of the key access questions. It seems that this may be a particular problem with the PE8 questions on advanced booking.

If a practice feels that their results do not reflect the reality of what they offer patients then they should put in a QOF appeal to their PCT. The LMC will shortly provide a template letter so that you can be reassured that the wording you use is legally watertight. The latter and any further information will follow as soon as we have it. Follow this link for interim information from the GPC.

GPC Chairman, Dr Laurence Buckman, has addressed a letter to all GPs which you can view by clicking here.
NHS Branding
Practices may use NHS branding – should they wish – as long as they follow the national guidance. Some practices may find this useful in letting the public know they provide NHS services, particularly in response to the broadening of healthcare provision in the area. Follow this link to view the brand guidelines.